10 meters has been open just about every day. There are no stations around and nobody replies to anyone calling CQ anymore.Hams seem to prefer sitting on the computer and complaining about the poor sunspot numbers rather than getting on the air calling CQ.

10 meters has been open for us deep into pacific and many long path openings everyday. There are just no stations around.I have stacked yagis on 10 meters and i know the band is open by using a remote receiver. There are 15000 VK's and hundreds of ZL's, but besides the handfulof 5 to 10 stations that I worked everyday nobody else is around. I know the band is open because one moment I can work stations with yagis and work 1 or 2 running a CB vertical that are S7 to S9. The stations with yagis pound in. Thats just how it is. The romance of working the band like a professional athletes has worn off and hams seem no longer interested in doing DX by calling CQ. I ask other hams at the club about this and they seem to prefer "just listening" Why they dont want to get on the air and call CQ is beyond me. They all have decent antennas. So hams are killing the hobby themselves by not being active.

There are also a lot of new hams around with expensive transceivers and amplifiers and use just the most appalling antennas in the world. I regularly work stations with Icom 7800's and SPE amplifiers 2kw running a half size G5RV or a CB antenna and an antenna tuner. If this becomes the standard its no wonder the bands sound dead. In past years every ham had a TA33, TH3JNR, HB9CV or some other popular beam. Why are hams so ignorant when it comes to the station engineering. Antenna space is not the problem its the attitude and technical aptitude thats at fault.

I work thousands of JA's on 10 meters. They live in the most densely populated cities in the world. Most are running beams on decent towers. I contrast this to working stations in VK and ZL. I work stations who are on 10 acres of land running a loaded CB antenna with a antenna tuner. In VK and ZL a low G5RV seems to be the standard and when you look at these stations and the houses that they are living in a 70ft tower with beams would not be a problem. I was trying to work a VK station on 40 meters longpath the other day. He was squeeky and scratchy and very weak. I just managed to exchange reports and get his callsign. I am running a 3 element 40 meter yagi at a 150 ft. I looked up this station on QRZ. His station consisted of a IC7700, thousands of dollars of ESSB equipment, 2 acres of land and his antennas was some kind of coil loaded CB 0.5 wave vertical with a coil on it. His profile said he uses this antenna on all bands with a tuner. Why is it a surprise that the bands are dead? If it was not for the stations who install beams we would conclude that ham radio is finished and there is nobody around anymore. It seems many hams have very low aspirations for antennas and their stations

What is also funny I called CQ for 10 minutes not one station came back. Then I changed frequency onto 28490. I started calling CQ, then I heard a few station saying QSY you on the call channel! Say What? Call channel? Yes apparently the VK's have set up a call channel on 28490 and I was told to QSY from their call channel! I asked for a report before leaving, not wanting to upset the CB call channel. The point here was not so much about the call channel. The point was that there was propagation and that the band was open. These stations idea of working DX was like 2 meters sitting on a repeater. This is what the VK6 call channel expert told me " i will talk to you after you QSY off the call channel" I politely just ignored him and left the frequency. Since when did they start introducing call channels on 10 meters ?

So there it is, hams are not interesting in hamming like hams used to ham in previous cycles. Hamming is more about tuning the PC than calling CQDX. Hams cant be even bothered to even try installing decent antennas and then we wonder why the cycle is so poor. The cycle is not poor its the hams who have a poor attitude to the hobby who really need a reality check to what and how they are doing things. It seems hams when it comes to HF think they can work DX with antennas that are no better than their cell phone antenna in terms of efficiency. Then you have some hams who expect DX to come to them on a special channel, where is ham radio going?

So there it is 10 meters is open, while it is not open 24 hours it is just about is. Look when FT5ZM came on and when there is a contest. WOW, you can hear the whole world 24 hours day. The contest committee must have the switch to turn the ionosphere on or off! If you dont call CQ you get no activity its that simple. Lack of activity killed 10 meters not the poor sunspot numbers, and many hams have contributed to this syndrome by not being active and using poor equipment. Simple really.

I was born in 1959, so maybe that had something to do with me becoming a ham? Now at my age - I have sun (age) spots . . . .

I was active 1973 - 1977 as WA2QHN in Newton, NJ, then college, women, career, family, kids got in the way. Fast forward to 2001 when I got back in the hobby.

I made it to Honor Roll between July 2001 and January 1, 2013, so Cycle 23 and 24 are all I have ever known - propagationally speaking. Back in the 70's I just called CQ and answered CQ's - and also did some CW NTS traffic work.

The only "high" HF band that I have witnessed all night long has been 20M (I think). Can remember anything above that open all night . . .

In 1940, German tanks in North Africa using a few watts of AM on ten meters were being heard in Scituate, Rhode Island by a ham with a simple antenna and the relatively deaf receiver availible to him. The "GVT" established a listening post there for the duration of the war, thinking it was an outstanding site - they actually took over the amateur's home. In retrospect it looks like propagation, not the location, was the cause.

10 meters has been open for us deep into pacific and many long path openings everyday. There are just no stations around.

while it might be easy to point the finger at your post as over-the-top, you may be onto something with this idea that we should point the fingers at ourselves. Tonight I was listening on 10 meters and HL2DC kept calling CQ with few to zero takers. I found him not by tuning the band and listening or calling CQ as you suggest, but by looking at a spotting site (DX Heat webpage cluster is awesome https://dxheat.com/dxc/ )

Now from the look of his antennas on qrz.com, HL2DC has a tremendous station. I could barely hear him, and though i tried to call many times, he could not hear my little signal. (yeah i know -- an inverted vee up 40 ft that isn't even cut for 10 meters is pretty pathetic) This was 3 hours after sunset here in Indiana.

i was able to work ZL7AAA on 10m SSB this evening at 01:22 z ...

If condx were this good today with the SFI apparently at about 160, what must they have been like in 1958 when the SFI was at 345?

In 1968 and 1969 ten meters was frequently open all night. Not every night or even most nights, but it wasn't unusual to hear DX stations coming in at 30 over S-9 in the wee hours. It seemed like this was particularly true of Australian and New Zeland stations.

Its open theres nobody on. WWV turned on their 25mhz transmitter recently. They were 20db over S9 at my location.There was not one ham station on from the USA. Same goes for 10 meters. It was open, everyone was either in bed or on the internet and nobody was calling CQ.

There is just a lack of activity all the openings from past cycles are still there. Not 24 hours day but there is always a path.

When I tune down to the CB silly channel 27.025 and around there I can AM truckers with 5 watts. When I listen on a remote SDR radio in the USA and call CQ I can hear myself loud and clear.

Hams need to learn the ancient art of calling CQ again like the old days. In the past i would run out of time because I would not have enough time to answer all the CQ's from the USA if I tuned across any band.

What always gets me is that when I get spotted in the USA. I can get stuck on any band for hours. It seems stations get attracted to a pileup like ants too honey. Yet when I takebreak and go have a coffee and then tune up and down the bands I dont hear anyone else who I worked with a huge signal calling CQ. I am not even in a rare country and have pileups like I am in North Korea, thats how starved the ham bands are for activity when a miserable everyday station comes on.

Really if hams dont want to use the ham bands what point is there of having control of a wasteland that is not being used?

In 1968 and 1969 ten meters was frequently open all night. Not every night or even most nights, but it wasn't unusual to hear DX stations coming in at 30 over S-9 in the wee hours. It seemed like this was particularly true of Australian and New Zeland stations.

Its open theres nobody on. WWV turned on their 25mhz transmitter recently. They were 20db over S9 at my location.There was not one ham station on from the USA. Same goes for 10 meters. It was open, everyone was either in bed or on the internet and nobody was calling CQ.

There is just a lack of activity all the openings from past cycles are still there. Not 24 hours day but there is always a path.

It's mostly the spring weather, folks are not in the shack in the cold dark weather, they are outside in warm sunlight.

Lately the high A/K numbers have played havoc with most weekends but there have been some remarkable things I've heard. In the middle of my Wednesday night I was working JA's on 15M no problem. At the exact same time 20M/40M/80M were very nicely open to EU.

Not sure, but what I do know is that in 1964 at about 1AM in Hawaii, I checked into the Breakfast net in Chicago on 10 meters as KH6EFO. They were sure I was a pirate playing a joke on them. But I really was in Kailua, Hawaii.

Not sure, but what I do know is that in 1964 at about 1AM in Hawaii, I checked into the Breakfast net in Chicago on 10 meters as KH6EFO. They were sure I was a pirate playing a joke on them. But I really was in Kailua, Hawaii.

1958 was amazing! Running 10 watts on 10 meters cw and am it was possible to work WAC in a single day. Using an Eico CB rig that I converted to ten AM worked lot of DX, one memorable QSO was with a Wycliffe Bible translator in Honduras that lasted over an hour. The output from that Eico was just a little over 1 watt on AM!

We had local six meter net on Thursday evening and it was not unusual to be joined by a DX station, two times that I rcvall a ZL station joining.

It was possible to start at daybreak working EU, then AF and SA and as the sun proceeded west the Pacific dominated the band.

Most of us used simple gear and DXCC on ten was easy. How nice it would be to see that kind of propagation again!!!

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